FALSE AND SENSATIONALIST ALLEGATIONS ON THE SAA INCIDENT BY THE DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE SHADOW MINISTER ON TRANSPORT, MR HUNSINGER
29 June 2022
The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) is deeply concerned with the false and sensationalist allegations spread by the Shadow Minister of Transport of the Democratic Alliance (DA) on the handling of the South African Airways (SAA) incident in Accra, Ghana by the Regulator.
What is puzzling is that the SACAA has never received any query from the Shadow Minister, yet he releases a media statement which is completely misinformed.
These are the facts, which he elected not to seek clarity on, for reasons only known to himself:
The SACAA received an incident notification on the Regulator‘s Central Safety Reporting System from South African Airways (SAA) on 17 April 2022 after the incident on 15 April 2022. The Civil Aviation Regulations gives operators up to 72 hours to report incidents to the SACAA depending on the nature of the incident and this requirement was complied with.
The airline reported that when the crew were preparing to take off from Accra Ghana, enroute to OR Tambo International Airport, JHB, they noticed a warning light in the cockpit which upon investigation pointed to fuel contamination. The crew activated the safety procedures which led to the draining of the water contaminated fuel, followed by the refueling of the aircraft. The aircraft subsequently continued with the return commercial scheduled flight to OR Tambo International Airport.
Whilst flying over Botswana, the crew experienced a fuel low pressure warning and they exercised safe flight procedures to ensure that they continue with the flight and they landed safely at ORTIA.
The report by SAA on the SACAA’s Central Safety Reporting System triggered an Annex 19 SACAA safety inspection or investigation as per Part 140 for the State of Operator.
The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) Ghana were notified of the fuel contamination incident and are investigating the matter as the State of Occurence according to Annex 13 provisions.
The AIB Ghana notified the South African Accident and Incident Investigation Division (AIID) who also notified the SACAA on 25 April 2022. The initial media query confirmed the date when the AIID notified the SACAA only and the media team did not verify with the Regulatory side on the date the incident was reported by the operator in the system hence the initial feedback to the media was limited to the AIID notification to the SACAA. The ICAO prescripts call for the publication of Annex 13 investigation reports and therefore it is expecetd that the AIB Ghana will release a report of their findings ultimately.
The SACAA undertook an Annex 19 safety investigation on SAA from 19 April 2022. Depending on the final outcome of this safety investigation, the SACAA may take enforcement action against SAA if they are found to have been negligent or non-compliant with the CARs.
There is no requirement to publish Annex 19 safety investigation reports and the SACAA has never done this in the past or present with any operator. In fact the SACAA has undertaken several of these investigations including in the past few months with other airlines and none of those reports were sensationalised nor was the SACAA required to release them to the media and or the public. Until the SAA-Belgium incident, there has never been this obsession with the release of an Annex 19 report.
For the record, the Belgium incident resulted in an enforcement action which was taken against SAA and they complied with the requirements of the enforcement action.
The biggest concern for the SACAA however is the bullying of an African pilot by the Shadow Minister, as demonstrated in his media statement and some journalists who are continuously and falsely pushing an agenda to question the competence of African pilots, as proven by Mr Hunsinger‘s statement released on 27 June 2022.
South Africa’s aviation training standards are well recognised internationally, as verified by independent international bodies. It is a well known fact that the South African pilot licence is globally sought after. The pilot licences as issued by the SACAA know no colour or gender and the Regulator has faith in the Aviation Training Organisations and the competency assessment mechanisms implemented by the Regulator to produce competent and globally recognised licence holders. It is through these pilots that our country has maintained impeccable and globally appraised standards.
The new culture of singling out pilots and embarrassing them publicly without any verification of facts, evidence or substance is dangerous and a cause for concern. Pilots are trained to deal with occurences from time to time and it cannot be correct that whenever there is an occurence, which is dealt with accordingly by pilots, they are then unjustifiably paraded as incompetent.
This practice does not add any value to aviation safety but puts unnecessary pressure on the professional aviators who are well trained. The Regulator respects reporting and the expression of views however those must done so responsibly.
This is also the same reason why when accidents and incidents happen we look at the circumstances around each occurence, and we keep away from singling out crew members with the intention of embarrasing them publicly.
This approach is detrimental to the future of our crews and only serves to impact their reputation negatively in their choice of career. The SACAA views Mr Hunsinger’s actions as careless and lacking in empathy.
Should the Shadow Minister have been interested in the truth, he would have discovered that the African pilot he is accusing of this incident was in fact not even part of the crew that dealt with the fueling and refueling of the aircraft in Accra. This Captain in contrast was responsible for the safe piloting of the flight from Accra to Johannesburg.
Both crews i.e. the one who noticed the warning light on the aircraft and the one who ultimately piloted the aircraft back to South Africa acted within the bounds of the law and their training and they must both be applauded for taking safety precautions when the situations called for them to do so.
The comments from the critics only serve to compromise safety by putting unnecessary pressure on Captains / pilots to act hastily with no regard for the safety of the crew and passengers. Civil Aviation Regulations are very specific with regards to the duty and responsibilities of the Captain / crew and the SACAA cannot encourage a situation where the decisions of the Captains in ensuring safety are being questioned by individuals with no credentials to do so.
In relation to the matter of ZS-CAR, the SACAA position remains. An appeal application was submitted to the Ministry of Transport to reopen the investigation and allow the SACAA sufficient time and a platform to respond to the new findings in the published report which were never consulted with the SACAA. This was followed by another appeal from the families to the Minister also calling for the review of the report.
At the time of responding to the DA Shadow Minister statement, the SACAA was yet to make representations on the new findings. Until such time that the SACAA is afforded this opportunity, all questions regarding ZS-CAR may be referred to the Department. To use this tragedy for political reasons is disingenous. SACAA will not expand any further on the ZS-CAR matter owing to the respect to the families of our departed colleagues and respecting the processes which are handled by the Department.
The suggestion that the SACAA is hiding behind the Minister of Transport, Mr Mbalula is both misdirected and misinformed. The SACAA is a reputable organisation that conducts its business consistent with international standards. The SACAA is audited independently by the international organisations on a regular basis as well as local authorities on compliance matters, and its record speaks for itself.
About the SACAA:
The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) is a Schedule 3A public entity reporting to the Department of Transport established in terms of the Civil Aviation Authority Act, 2009 (Act No 13 of 2009) (the Act). In terms of mandate, the SACAA is tasked with promoting and maintaining a safe, secure, and sustainable civil aviation environment, by regulating and overseeing the functioning and development of the industry in an efficient, cost-effective, and customer-friendly manner according to international standards. The SACAA is governed and controlled by the Civil Aviation Authority Board.
Issued by the South African Civil Aviation Authority, 29 June 2022
